“The issue with using ‘We’ is that it is not the community that baptizes a person, rather, it is Christ, and Christ alone, who presides at all of the sacraments, and so it is Christ Jesus who baptizes,” Bishop Thomas Olmsted wrote in a mid-January message on the diocese’s site.

The Vatican in June 2020 issued the guidance declaring that the formula “We baptize you...” was invalid and that anyone who was baptized using it must be re-baptized using the proper formula.

The Holy See said it was taking action because some unnamed priests were using the “We” formula to make the baptism more of a communal affair involving parents, godparents and the community in welcoming a new member into the Catholic Church.

Arango was the pastor of the St. Gregory Parish in Phoenix. Before coming to Arizona in 2005, he served in San Diego and Brazil.

Kevin Eckery, director of external and community relations at the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, said the diocese there told people who think they might have been baptized by Arango to talk with their parish priest, check their baptism certificate and get baptized again if they fear theirs was invalid.

“It’s relatively easy to fix it. The parish priest can take care of this quickly — if they want to be re-baptized, they can be,” Eckery said.

In an undated note on the Phoenix diocese’s website, Arango wrote: “It saddens me to learn that I have performed invalid baptisms throughout my ministry as a priest by regularly using an incorrect formula. I deeply regret my error and how this has affected numerous people in your parish and elsewhere.”

Christina Moishe Collins, a parishioner and cantor at St. Gregory, said Arango was beloved and helped boost the congregation’s dwindling membership.